Our Curriculum
Prahran High School is committed to offering a broad, diverse and engaging curriculum based on the Victorian Curriculum, with a strong emphasis on both Learning Areas and Capabilities.
Prahran High School is also committed to an evidence-based approach to the various curriculum innovations which help make our school unique. We embrace our obligation to provide a guaranteed, viable and shared curriculum for our students and community - accessible anytime, anywhere. The Prahran High School curriculum flows from, and informed by, our collaboratively developed Vision for Learning.
Deeply embedded in the design of our curriculum is the belief that students can, and should, make a positive and significant impact as a result of their learning at school.
We plan our curriculum around term-length cycles of learning that connect to a Big Idea and extend beyond the classroom, providing all students with an opportunity to apply their learning in a meaningful, purposeful and authentic way.
Year 7 and 8 Curriculum: Creativity and Connections
Our Year 7 and 8 program is designed to excite and encourage an enthusiastic sense of curiosity in our students, connecting them to each other, their school, our values and our community.
Our Year 7 and 8 program is designed to prioritise the core skills of literacy and numeracy as we know them to be absolutely essential for success in higher levels of schooling, work and life. Students are challenged in their learning, working at times independently and often in collaboration with others.
Further, as students begin and consolidate their learning at Prahran High School we strive to develop their sense of creativity in all its myriad forms and ways. Students have agency in their learning and they have significant sequential and individual opportunity to advance the skills learned in Year 7 when they progress into Year 8, and pathways beyond.
Further details of the Year 7 and 8 Curriculum are outlined in the table below.
Year 7 and 8 Curriculum: Creativity and Connections
| PHS Learning Area | Victorian Curriculum Areas |
|---|---|
| English | English Intercultural Capability and Critical/Creative Thinking |
| Humanities | Humanities, Intercultural Understanding |
| Mathematics | Mathematics Critical and Creative Thinking |
| The Ethical Scientist | Science Ethical Understanding |
| French | Languages |
| Healthy Mind, Healthy Body | HAPE Personal and Social Learning |
| Design Lab | Product Design and Technology Digital Technologies Critical and Creative Thinking |
| Art and Design Innovation | The Arts - Visual Arts |
| Music | The Arts - Music |
| Food for Life/Future Food | Design and Technology |
| Take the Stage (Drama/Performance) | The Arts |
| Music | The Arts - Music |
Mentor Teachers
Students are assigned a Mentor Teacher who will have further connection, relationship and wellbeing responsibility for students in their group. This involves: Learning Boot Camps, connections, transition, organisation, wellbeing, special care and becoming a significant relationship for students and families.
Instrumental Music
Our classroom music curriculum is supported by our instrumental and ensemble music program.
IMPACT9
Year 9 represents an important moment for our young people. For us, it is the culmination and highlight of learning in the Middle School and a chance for our students to extend, challenge and apply the core skills and knowledge they have built in Year 7 and 8, and to engage with the community and world beyond the school in more significant and more authentic ways.
And, Year 9 is also a critical step towards the future, both at school and beyond, where learning is characterised by agency, independence and responsibility. Ultimately, we want our students to see themselves as active contributors and participants in local and global communities, and to know that they have the capacity to Make an Impact, both now and in the future.
The Curriculum
IMPACT9 aims to provide a range of different learning experiences for students. It is built on a consistent foundation of providing deep, largely project-based explorations for students across the full range of Victorian Curriculum subjects and capabilities. The curriculum is designed for flexibility and for learning experiences to be tailored to the interests and needs of each cohort and individual students.
IMPACT9 Core
Mathematics, English, French and Healthy Body, Healthy Mind
Within the IMPACT9 Mathematics, English, French and Healthy Body, Healthy Mind curricula, we ensure that students continue to build their fundamental skills and knowledge in literacy, numeracy, health and fitness and languages. This provides all students with the foundation for academic and personal success in the Later Years of school and beyond. We also provide significant, necessary and planned opportunities for extension and enrichment.
IMPACT9 Projects
Our IMPACT9 projects are driven by a focus on Inquiry, Industry, Community and Personal and Social learning, with the program operating in a flexible and dynamic way to provide authentic learning opportunities across the sciences, humanities, technology and the arts.
IMPACT9 Specialisations
Our IMPACT9 specialisations allow students to undertake depth studies in areas of personal interest, delving further into unique learning areas. Students can try new learning pathways, build their technical capability with specialised programs in the Arts and Technology areas, or undertake substantial enrichment, connected to their core curriculum learning.
Passion Projects
As part of the IMPACT9 Projects, students also undertake at least two Passion Projects, supported by a mentor teacher, who will provide coaching, resources and on-going assistance.